[jabberwocky]

@dkel 120128 wrote:

Thanks hozn and jabberwocky. I will try both the road route and the path, just for fun. I also see there may be a trail that connects from the east side of the park, along Colvin Run to the Cross County Trail, and I may try that. Anything will be better than what I did this morning.

Thats the colvin run mill trail (connects from Hunters Mill to Carpers Farm Way, where you can join the CCT and head south to the W&OD). Its old unpaved doubletrack and does get mushy though. And its pretty eroded and rooty. Nothing bad for MTB but you’ll feel it on a CX bike.

Back in the day, that was how you rode Lake Fairfax (before all the singletrack existed there). Doubletrack through Lake Fairfax, across the Colvin Run Mill trail, down the CCT to the W&OD and back to the ice rink.

[jabberwocky]

@dkel 120123 wrote:

That path looks on Google Maps like it’s paved. Is it that way all the way through?

Yes, its all paved. I’ve ridden it a handful of times. Its not totally smooth and is a bit narrow in places, and there are some steep climbs/descents (all typical for some of the smaller Reston paths) but its totally doable on a road bike. Just don’t expect the W&OD.

[jabberwocky]

@dkel 120118 wrote:

Anyway, does anyone have a recommended road route to Lake Fairfax? I was thinking of going a little way up Wiehle from the W&OD, and then cutting through neighborhoods to get to Lake Fairfax Drive.

Thats my recommended route. I actually rode it this morning. Up Wiehle, right on North Shore drive (up near Baron Cameron), around ring road to Hunt Club, then onto Lake Fairfax drive. Wiehle isn’t as bad as you’d think, even at rush hour. But if it makes you uncomfortable, you can take the earlier north shore right, go through tall oaks shopping center and hit the reston path that loops behind all those neighborhoods and ends on ring road.

[jabberwocky]

@Subby 120057 wrote:

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the replay of Kill Bill here – especially cool to see when folks split off, hopped in, etc.. Also fun to watch the Social Ride move around.

http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/?utm_source=strava_activity_header#344901055,L26HFDC6iBTc84gUXruJFElIihSQdYoUNK2LFOS8ixQNB4wUCzqMFF8RjRQ5So0UOUyNFO1NjRTJX40U72iNFF1pjRTCjo0UiJ2NFBOmjRSXro0USrqNFKfBjRSR0I0UVdGNFFLfjRS+6Y0U8u2NFML5jRTu/I0UIhOOFG4UjhTfFI4U1yqOFCBejhQgZI4UInSOFHV9jhQngY4UsoWOFLKMjhS3lo4Uz7GOFK3EjhRrzo4UDNeOFGkKjxSpOY8UTp2SFA==

Very cool! I have to say, planning the social ride was the biggest ride planning challenge I’ve ever done… just because I was trying to regularly intersect the main ride to cheer (which meant guessing where they would be and when we could get there), as well as hit some quality food locations (and early on, hitting them after they opened for the day, since not much is open at 7am on a sunday!).

It worked far better than it had any right to. Especially since I did most of the mapping Saturday night. I don’t think we waited anywhere for more than 10 minutes or so. We hit the top of 41st like 3 minutes before the group came through.

[jabberwocky]

@Steve O 119957 wrote:

We Kill Bill idiots are hoping for a great cheering/social squad. Jabbo – Any information your fellow KBSR group needs to know? Or tips, etc.? I think kwarkentien (and others likely, too) are seeking guidance.

Meet at same time and place as the main ride. The whole ride will last all day. Plan on 40ish miles with lots of food stops. I’ll try and post a loose ridewithgps route tonite. I’ve had a busy week and haven’t done a lot of planning, so things will likely be pretty loose.

[jabberwocky]

Its easy to get a… skewed… view of normal reading this forum. Because we have people who ride 20 miles each way, every day, and to the store, and do long rides on the weekends, and haven’t driven in years… It takes a lot of riding to get to the point of being able to do that though. And not everyone would enjoy it anyway.

[jabberwocky]

34 miles a day is a lot of riding, especially if you aren’t used to it. That would be over 600 miles a month just from commuting if you rode very day! Basically, listen to your body. If you’re tired and worn out on the bike, take a rest day. Rest days are when you get stronger. Eventually you’ll be able to ride more days in a row before feeling tired and worn out.

[jabberwocky]

@TwoWheelsDC 119800 wrote:

It’s little consolation, but at least the risk of going down falls almost squarely on the bad actor in this situation, since the person doing the passing is most vulnerable if bikes or bodies touch. I’ve had guys overlap my wheel, then I moved slightly for whatever reason and their front wheel touched my back wheel, they went down and I didn’t even realize anything happened until I heard them hit the ground.

Hah! My story isn’t a passing story, but a “someone decided to draft me 3″ from my back wheel without saying anything” story. I was rolling along pretty good on the gentle downgrade heading west out of Vienna, and suddenly spotted a deer emerge from the brush on the right. I naturally grabbed some brake because I assumed said deer was about to jump into the trail, and immediately felt a bump and heard a crash. Mister three-inches-from-my-wheel rammed me and went down pretty hard. Surprised me because I had no idea he was there. I stopped to make sure he was ok and got some whining about how I shouldn’t brake so suddenly when someone is behind me (like I’m leading the peloton at the TDF or something). I commented that I didn’t even know he was there, and maybe drafting strangers wasn’t such a great idea. He was very sulky about the whole thing.

@DanB 119802 wrote:

At least the dogs tend to be on a leash.

And are probably, on average, smarter. Or at least better trained with more survival instinct.

I’m gonna make people mad…

[jabberwocky]

@Tania 119795 wrote:

I bike to avoid aggressive drivers who are in a rush to get wherever they’re going. Sadly, many cyclists aren’t any different.

Its weird how my attitude towards MUPs have changed over the years. When I first started bike commuting in 2006, I loved that most of my commute was on the W&OD. Over time I got more comfortable on the road, and switched commutes to a 100% road commute with the new job in 2011. Now its sort of unpleasant putting in long miles on the W&OD; people are just so unpredictable, its this weird mix of totally oblivious newbies, wannabe racers, kids/dogs (these are basically the same thing to me) and normal riders/people.

I’ve gone from being nervous when I leave the W&OD for the road to wanting the W&OD section to end when I’m doing mixed rides.

[jabberwocky]

I just think its ridiculous to truck along in the left lane expecting people people in front of you to yield when they probably don’t even know you’re there. The whole point of calling passes is so that people in front of you know you’re coming. Its especially true on a narrow, twisty trail like the Mt. Vernon.

I know that in addition to calling passes, I’m always watchful of people with obviously disparate speeds (a cyclist about to overtake a walker, for example) in front of me. I tend to assume that, even if I’ve called my pass, a cyclist about to overtake a walker will likely move left in front of me. But I’m usually riding the W&OD, which is wider and has good sitelines.

[jabberwocky]

If he didn’t call his pass, thats on him.

[jabberwocky]

I’ve been stung a few times after running into insects, and I had a spider drop on my leg and bite me years ago while mountainbiking. My fear has always been swallowing a bee/wasp. 😮

[jabberwocky]

Dear white Prius with driver who was obviously on a very important phone call at Baron Cameron and Lake Fairfax Drive this morning: You are very lucky I double checked that you were stopping at that red light before I went, because your phone call clearly took precedence over mundane stuff like checking the color of stop lights, and I’d hate to mess up the front of your prius by foolishly proceeding through a green light.

[jabberwocky]

@hozn 119594 wrote:

Yeah, they really are pretty wooden tires. Tires make more difference in ride quality than most other aspects of a [road] bike; I know I could ride much cheaper (sub-$50) tires, but life is really too short for that. And Gatorskins really don’t grip well. In general, I have found GP4000S to grip nicely, though they don’t feel sticky like the Duranos (or these Ones). I did slide out going down Sugarloaf a couple weeks ago on the Contis, though, couldn’t attribute it to anything specific so I think they may have a little less grip than I thought.

I did notice the reduced traction when I switched to the contis. I never went down but there were a few times in those initial weeks where the bike would get squirrelly in corners I knew the Pro3s would have held fine.

I totally agree about life being too short for cheap tires. That said, while I’d love to give Schwalbes offerings a shot, those things are rather pricy…

@hozn 119594 wrote:

Good to know about the Michelin Pro* tires being faster/grippier. I have also heard they wear fast. I get around 2k miles on my Contis (rear tire, front probably more like 3500-4000) so not exactly a very long-lasting tire. Maybe running slightly lower pressures (used to run 100/110 psi on my 25mm tires, lately running 90/100 sometimes lower) has helped me avoid sidewall issues? Maybe just lucky. No idea.

When I lost the first conti to a sidewall going, I chalked it up to luck (was on the shoulder and something small did kick up and hit it). The second was annoying and the third was the last straw. It could just be bad luck, but its not like good alternatives don’t exist in that pricepoint, and I wasn’t that enamored with them anyway.

I went through two sets of the Pro3s on the roadie when I built it. I got almost exactly 2k miles out of both sets. No sidewall/flat issues, they would just go until the tread was basically gone and Id start seeing casing.

[jabberwocky]

@GB 119579 wrote:

Gator skins FTW. I’m not sure what you consider premature, but have 3k miles on my gator skins and I’m very happy with their overall performance.

I’d be happy to get over 2k miles on them. Thus far no contis have made it that far. I used to run Pro3s and get a consistent 2k out of them (the tread would wear out). The contis seem to have a better tread (the 3 that died had plenty of tread left) so its frustrating to have to toss them because the sidewall couldn’t hack life anymore. :p

This is on a carbon road bike, so I’m generally looking for 23mm roadie tires which do tend to not be super long lived. Gator skins are, I’m sure, very durable. They are also heavy and slow.

@hozn 119582 wrote:

Yeah, I’ve heard people complain about Conti sidewalls. I did have one GP 4 Seasons sidewall blow out just a few hundred miles in, but since then have never had a Conti sidewall issue (probably 8-10 tires or so). I’ve perhaps just been lucky. I’ve ridden a fair bit of gravel on my GP4000S tires and my sidewalls on the road bike are pretty sliced up (e.g. casing threads showing), but no blowouts.

I already put in an order for a pair of Michelin Pro4s. The remaining conti (the current front) will go up on the wall as a backup tire. I always liked the pro3s; the only reason I switched off was I was seeing if I could get longer life out of a different tire. To be fair, the contis do seem to be a lot more durable in the tread wear category, but that doesn’t help when the sidewalls are going at 1000 miles. I didn’t think they gripped as well or rode as nice as the pro3s I used to run did either. Oh well.

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